>> harris: a lot of energy spent on all this going back and forth. in fact, leading republicans suggesting a great deal of time has been wasted on politics. >> that is precisely right. they note that the house republicans tried to address the issues this summer and voted to extend all of the bush tax cuts and voted on an alternative to the automatic spending cuts that are due to kick in in the new you year and today the top senate republican said why wasn't this addressed months ago? >> we wanted an agreement. but we had no takers. the phone never rang. and so now here we are five days from the new year and we might finally start talking. >> so clearly a lot of blame game back and forth between republican and democrats but perhaps most importantly a white house meeting tomorrow with all of the key players face to face with the president. harris? >> they are talking. now, if we could just get them to talk to each other. the president and senate already returned and now we know house lawmakers due you to come back on sunday. >> there was a quarterback